STATE SEN. ANDY DINNIMAN: We need more information about local pipeline projects

Approximately 600 miles of gas pipeline crisscross Chester County — more than in any other suburban Philadelphia county and the third most of all Pennsylvania counties. And the local pipelines will only increase as more and more Marcellus Shale gas is piped to cities up and down the East Coast.

Lagging far behind are laws and policies notifying and educating the public about these natural gas pipeline projects. Federal and state laws require very little of pipeline operators as far as letting affected landowners know of a pipeline possibly going through their backyards. Federal law says the very first time a pipeline operator must notify affected landowners of a project is three days after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission receives the company’s project application.

What more typically happens is a resident first hears of a company’s project when a company representative knocks on their door to talk about upcoming surveying work or the purchase of an easement on their property.

This fractured informational process is made worse by the fact that local elected officials and governments are often left out of it. Pipeline companies differ in how proactive they are in reaching out to communities and community leaders, but Chester County official David Ward said in a recent Daily Local News article, “There is a need for a strategy to start communications and open dialogue with pipeline companies earlier in the state of the process for proposed pipelines. … Right now that information isn’t mandated.”

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To its credit, Chester County has responded by creating the first-in-the-commonwealth Pipeline Notification Protocol process, headed by East Caln resident Lynda Farrell. Her recently completed report recommended three ways to improve the informational process: Asking pipeline operators to contact a designated county official before planning the project route; sharing project information with municipal officials and affected landowners; and creating a web site where resident can easily access information about particular, local projects.

I support all three steps, and I think we can do even better. I have proposed state legislation that would turn these recommendations or steps similar into requirements.

My Senate Bill 504, the Public Notification and Access to Information Act, would require those seeking to install a natural-gas pipeline or some other large project to directly notify those who live within a half-mile of the proposed activity. Senate Bill 504 would also require the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to post on-line permit applications and supporting documentation so that the public is not only notified about projects but can also learn what exactly is proposed.

In addition, I have also introduced two companion bills that will raise the environmental bar for pipeline projects in southeastern Pennsylvania while also protecting taxpayers’ investments.

Senate Bill 506 will require pipeline operators who take land from taxpayer-funded agriculture and conservation easements to buy or replace those easements, acre for acre, in another part of the county. That same bill will also require pipeline operators to repair the ground in such a way that storm water runoff is no worse after the pipelines are installed.

Finally, Senate Bill 507 will further protect farmland conserved by Act 43 by requiring any utility eminent domain action to first be approved by Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Lands Condemnation Approval Board. Such approval is currently not required.

There is an excellent opportunity to hear more about pipelines in general and the public notification process specifically on Wednesday evening from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the West Pikeland Township Building. There, representatives from local governments, pipeline companies, conservation groups and state lawmakers are all scheduled to discuss the pipeline notification process, what is being done and what can be done to improve the process.

I urge all residents to attend to learn more about pipeline projects, which already affect 57 of Chester County’s 73 municipalities and are expected to affect many more thousands of residents in the near future.

State Sen. Andy Dinniman, of West Whiteland, is a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s 19th Senatorial District in parts of Chester County.